I haven't seen the dismissal so obviously I'll hold judgement on that.
But this is another massive red X in the column for spirit of cricket. Laws are laws, by and large they're not open to interpretation or present grey areas (although I'll acknowledge those exist). The spirit of cricket is the opposite. It's outdated. It's too dependent on match and series, situation, personalities, wider contexts, general pressure etc. And it means different things around the world. In India, spirit of cricket is very different to England, to NZ, to West Indies, to anywhere. So how the hell can you expect that to be relevant and have the ability to, in part, govern how the game is played? We're basically choosing to play by a different set of laws below one standard set of laws.
You can't expect Pat Cummins to take a moral high ground. The guy was pillared for any role he played in the Justin Langer scenario, he's been unfairly targeted as a do-gooder because he cares about ethical issues, even though he's been successful as Australian captain and massively so as a player, he still hadn't won the wider acclaim and hero status as most Aussie skippers get. Then he does his thing at Edgbaston, and all of a sudden he is that national hero. All of a sudden, in a heated environment of an Ashes series, he's expected to choose 'spirit' over letting the appointed officials do their job? And if they lose, then somehow England win the Ashes, how does that play out? **** that.
Spirit of cricket is a relic, it's not fit for purpose. Unfortunately, it'll probably take those dinosaurs in the Long Room today yelling abuse at Australia to die out before we can truly get past it.